Terry Riley signs with G. Schirmer/AMP

G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with composer Terry Riley. Kristin Lancino, vice president of G. Schirmer/AMP noted that “the venerable and masterful composer/pianist Terry Riley joining G. Schirmer/AMP and the Music Sales Group is simply an honor. The entire team on all continents looks forward to a long partnership with both his new composed works and the dynamic existing catalogue.”

In 1964, Riley’s seminal In C provided a new concept in musical form based on interlocking repetitive patterns. Its impact was to change the course of 20th-century music and its influence has been heard in the works of countless composers as well as rock groups in the years since. In 1970, Riley became a disciple of the revered North Indian Raga vocalist Pandit Pran Nath and made the first of his numerous trips to India to study with him, a relationship that was to be crucial to his musical life. Riley’s hypnotic, multi-layered, polymetric, brightly orchestrated Eastern flavored improvisations and compositions have set the stage for the prevailing interest in a new tonality.

Performers who have commissioned and/or played his works include: Rova Saxophone Quartet, ARTE Quartet, Array Music, Zeitgeist, John Zorn, California E.A.R. Unit, guitarist David Tanenbaum, drummer George Marsh, bassist Bill Douglass, the Assad Brothers, Crash Ensemble, pianists Werner Bartschi and Gloria Cheng, Calder, Arditti and Amati Quartets, Alter Ego, Paul Dresher, Bang-on-a-Can All Stars, and guitarist Gyan Riley. A long association with the Kronos Quartet has resulted in two dozen works, including numerous string quartets, a quintet, a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, and Sun Rings, a two hour multi-media piece for string quartet with choir, visuals and space sounds, commissioned by NASA.

Riley is also active as a performer, regularly giving solo piano concerts of his works from the past 30 years, appearing in concerts of Indian classical music and conducting raga singing seminars. He also plays in duo concerts with Indian sitarist Krishna Bhatt, saxophonist George Brooks, his son, guitarist Gyan Riley and with virtuoso Italian bassist, Stefano Scodanibbio. In 2008 Riley played his first pipe organ concert to a sold out audience at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, introducing The Universal Bridge, a work especially commissioned for that evening.

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